UFC 239: Jorge Masvidal promises to ‘slap Ben Askren up in Whole Foods’ as he defends post-knockout celebration

Masvidal refused to repair his relationship with Askren following Saturday’s vicious five-second knockout after taking exception to his opponent’s trash talk in the lead up to the fight

UFC fighter Jorge Masvidal has defended his decision to taunt welterweight rival Ben Askren after knocking him out in just five seconds of their UFC 239 encounter, claiming that the response was just deserts for the way he behaved in the build-up to the fight.

Saturday night’s shocking result saw Masvidal inflict the first defeat of Askren’s career as a flying right knee knocked him out within five seconds of the fight starting, with the Florida-born fighter also landing two right hands when Askren was out on the canvas before referee Jason Herzog could separate the pair.

Masvidal celebrated by slapping the canvas repeatedly next to Askren and shouting in his face, but asked whether he regretted his immediate reaction to the victory, Masvidal made it impeccably clear that he would do the same again if given the chance.

Askren used the build-up to the fight to create bad blood between the pair, with the former ONE Championship and Bellator champion mocking his opponent over a number of personal things.

“There’s not too many people that I dislike,” Masvidal said when asked about his celebration. “I have over 50 pro fights and he’s one of them.

“He talked about my manhood, he talked about my culture, my ethnicity. Where do we draw ... why do certain people get to do stuff online? So you can do anything, everything is cool before a fight, you’re allowed to do and say whatever you want like other fighters are not doing, talking about peoples’ religion, peoples’ wife, even kids. That’s cool?

“But after a fight I’m not allowed to showboat and rub it in your face so that you (Askren) and guys like you can see it and think ‘maybe I don’t talk so much s*** because when I cross one of these real motherf*****s they going to make me pay for it man, they’re going to embarrass the s*** out of me’.

“It’s not over for Ben either. He still has to deal with me. If I see him at Whole Foods I’m a still slap that dude up because I don’t like him.”

Masvidal was criticised for throwing two more punches when Askren was out (Reuters) (USA TODAY Sports)

Masvidal also addressed questions about following up the knockout knee blow with two more punches, which he again rejected as the fight had not been waved off by Herzog.

Askren was left unconscious after just five seconds (Reuters) (USA TODAY Sports)

“They were super necessary. What do you mean ‘why were they not necessary?” he responded.

“The referee hadn’t pulled me off. My job is to hit somebody til the referee pulls me off, so to those people I would say maybe don’t watch MMA, maybe go back to soccer.”

Askren did not comment in the night after the fight, with the beaten welterweight tweeting “well that sucked” after being released from hospital following medical checks.